Meet Hannah Anders of The Hannah Anders Vocal Studio in North Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Anders.

Hannah, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I have been singing my entire life. I came into the world singing as my parents like to say. I spent my entire childhood and high school years performing, writing songs, recording albums, and immersing myself in the music industry. I decided after graduation that I wanted to further my education of music and specifically voice, so I applied and was accepted to the prestigious Belmont University as a commercial voice major. I moved to Nashville, TN at 18 years old and began what would be an incredible journey of education and personal growth. Not only did I learn the ins and outs of being a vocal technician, but I continued the pursuit of my own artist career, writing with some of Nashville’s best songwriters, recording in the great studios, and working directly with publishing companies and record labels.

After graduation I found myself with a head full of information and a desire to share it with others. I opened my first vocal studio on Music Row shortly thereafter and began developing the foundation for my technique and my method of training contemporary singers for the “real world stage.”

In 2009, I was ready for a change of scenery. My own music career was expanding and my desire to work on a larger scale as a vocal coach brought me to Los Angeles. I reopened The Hannah Anders Vocal Studio, and dove head first in to the entertainment industry here. Since then I have been so fortunate to work with, what I believe, are some of the greatest singers in this town. I have been called in by prestigious studios and producers to vocal produce their artists, I have coached girl groups on their stage performance, harmony work, and songwriting, and I have mentored countless singers as they journey through finding their artistry, applying to music programs, and carving a place for themselves in this industry. Throughout this time, my own band and I have toured numerous times, both domestically and internationally, and I continue to write and record my own music. I believe having a vocal coach who is actually in the of entertainment field themselves give you a huge leg up in the way of support and guidance. I am not only able to coach my students as artists, but mentor them as someone in the entertainment industry. I have gained an IMMENSE amount of knowledge and insight into this industry and nothing gives me greater pleasure then supporting other artists as they navigate their way through this world.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
When you pursue any dream and passion, the road is sometimes long and winding. I have definitely had my share of struggles moving to a new city and trying to establish myself again. It was incredibly difficult leaving an already established life and vocal studio in Nashville, not only because I was sad to leave my students, but because I had to completely rebuild everything here in Los Angeles. I did not know a soul, and there were many times I questioned whether or not I had made the right decision.

One quiet evening, very very early in my move to LA, I was perusing online ads, looking for vocal coaching jobs, when I came across an ad looking for a vocal judge for a singing competition. I called the number provided and introduced myself, ready to share all my credentials and why I would be a good choice for their contest. The man on the other line said hurriedly, “that’s great. I lost my judge for tonight’s show. If you can be here in an hour, I’ll pay you $50.00 and you can have the job.” I got dressed and was out the door. Not that $50.00 was much money, just enough to cover my gas and some food really, but at that point I was determined to open doors for myself build my business again. It was that competition that ended up spanning the course of a couple of months that opened me up to a large demographic of singers in LA. As a strategy to rebuild my studio, I offered a free lesson to each singer who participated in the contest. One by one they came in for their free session, but more often than not, they kept coming in. I knew that the passion I had for singing and the knowledge I had as a coach would resonate with most of these singers and so I happily offered a bit of my time for free to show them that I could be that extra bit of support that they needed to really master their craft and pursue their dreams.

That was almost eight years ago and I still coach many of those same singers today. I am fortunate now to have a very busy and booming schedule, but I have a special place in my heart for that first handful of singers who trusted the new vocal coach in town, and decided to stick with me.

There have been many challenges along the way but I try to focus on the times that I was brave within those challenges and found a creative way to tackle them. I try to encourage my students to do the same. This business is not for the faint of heart. That doesn’t mean we don’t have rough days where we need a good cry and a small pity party, we absolutely do. But we have to surround ourselves with good people, pick up the pieces, and keep going.

So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the The Hannah Anders Vocal Studio story. Tell us more about the business.
As I’ve stated, I specialize in contemporary vocal coaching and performance training. People ask me to clarify what that means sometimes, and in simple terms, it means that I specialize in vocal coaching of all genres except classical music. I have studied some classical voice in my time as a student and so I am able to help my contemporary singers should a “one off” classical audition arise, but it is not my area of expertise. I am unique in that my area of expertise is pop, country, rock, R&B, etc. Many singers come to me very frustrated because they are unable to sing the contemporary songs they would like to, usually because they have a hard time reaching high notes, sounding authentic to the genre, etc. More often than not, it is due to the fact that they lack the proper technique. Classical and “commercial” technique as it is also known, are very different ways of singing. Classical training is wonderful if you want to sing that style of music, but if you are trying to sing contemporary music, you are going to find yourself frustrated and fatigued trying to apply classical technique.

It is important for me as a contemporary coach to discover early on what each singer’s “true voice” is. So often a new student will come to me for the first time and when I ask them to sing, they take on the artist’s voice they are covering or they try to put effects on their voice so they sound “louder”, “bigger”, etc. Many vocal coaches will churn out a studio full of singers that sound just like them and I really think this does the student a disservice. I think it’s the little idiosyncrasies and uniqueness of each voice that gives that particular singer their “edge”. How are we going to tell that singer apart if they sound like everyone else? The ultimate goal is to discover each singer’s true tone, singing voice, and skill set, and then expand on it by breaking bad habits, instilling solid technique, and forming good, lifelong habits so they have the vocal endurance to pursue the career they want.

In addition to private one on one coaching, I also work with vocalists in their recording sessions in the studio and with large groups of singers in master classes and group training.

I am most proud of the fact that people leave their lessons with me feeling a sense of accomplishment. What seemed like such a huge mountain to climb all of a sudden gets broken down into very simple terms and we establish a game plan to help them reach their goals. I am also incredibly proud of the fact that students trust me in their lessons to share how personal singing is to them. To sing in front of someone is an incredibly vulnerable and scary thing sometimes and it can bring up a lot of emotions for people. When that happens, I try to hold a safe space for people to process whatever emotions are coming up, and they help them channel that in a really beautiful way back into their singing. That students feel safe to do this in front of me is a great honor, and one I do not take lightly.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We all know that saying, “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.”

I definitely believe I have been “lucky” in many ways. Lucky to have certain doors open for me, lucky to meet certain people, and be in the right places at the right times. But truthfully, I worked really in that process. I don’t think I’ve ever been presented with an opportunity and thought “wow I have no idea why the universe has just blessed me with this great thing, I’m so lucky!” Haha. Usually it was, “Oh my God what a blessing, thank you, I have been working so hard for an opportunity like this!”

I don’t really believe in “bad luck” for what it’s worth. I believe in lessons, I believe we all have skills to build and things to learn, and I believe we are provided with the situations we need to become who we are going to be. I believe really hard things happen in life but I don’t believe it’s the luck of the draw and you got the short end of the stick when it happens to you. I believe life is constantly in an ebb and flow of lessons and opportunities.

Contact Info:

• Address: North Hollywood, 91606
• Website: www.hannahandersmusic.com
• Phone: 615-594-4360
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: hannahandersmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehannahandersvocalstudio/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-hannah-anders-vocal-studio-north-hollywood